Nicholas Alahverdian started working for the Rhode Island General Assembly. He was assigned as a legislative page and then was promoted to legislative aide by Rep. Gordon D. Fox and (now Congressman) David N. Cicilline. He began to appear at the State House with bruises and cuts because he was being beaten in group homes and foster homes.

The state legislators tried to act, but once Chief Judge Jeremiah Jeremiah and Governor Donald Carcieri considered him a publicity threat, it was time for him to be exiled hundreds of miles from Rhode Island — to Nebraska and Florida — where he could contact no one. Alahverdian couldn’t attend school, participate in debate club or sports, or attend prom. Instead, he was beaten, tortured, raped, and overmedicated in two out-of-state placements that were later shut down by their own states for abuse and neglect.

Read the lawsuit first — it demonstrates that Rhode Island officials knew Nicholas Alahverdian was a publicity threat.

It details Alahverdian’s courage to inform the lawmakers in the House of Representatives of the abuse and torture he was suffering in the DCYF night-to-night program. When Nicholas Alahverdian started getting the attention of the press, Governor Don Carcieri and Chief Judge Jeremiah decided he needed to go.

The torture of Nicholas Alahverdian begins

Nicholas Alahverdian thought night-to-night placements were bad. But then when he was exiled from Rhode Island to Nebraska and then to Florida, he was tortured. Nicholas suffered severe physical, sexual, emotional, and chemical abuse. He was punched, kicked, beaten, and torn limb from limb by untrained, unqualified employees, many of whom had no experience working with children and were fresh out of high school looking for low-paying work. All of this is documented in the files below.

Alahverdian was beaten to a pulp on a daily basis. He was raped multiple times, by both clients and employees. Adults not affiliated with the group homes were brought in to sexually and physically abuse Nicholas. This is also documented in the files below.

Nicholas suffered painful dystonic reactions — his jaw felt as if it was consuming itself and it was turning to its right side involuntarily — because he was consistently prescribed medication which caused significant adverse reactions.

Nicholas Alahverdian was not allowed to contact anyone at all — police, the courts, lawyers, advocates, clergy — no one. He was left to rot in two facilities with lengthy records of abuse. Alahverdian was denied schooling. He was mistreated and overmedicated. Nicholas had no contact with the outside world and he wasn’t even allowed to feel fresh air on his face. He suffered torture and child abuse until his 18th birthday. Read what Nicholas Alahverdian wrote about Manatee Palms Youth Services in this heartbreaking memo: https://www.nicholasalahverdian.com/nicholas-alahverdian-memo/

Aftermath: Nicholas returned to Rhode Island just prior to his 18th birthday. He was heavily overmedicated and required significant medical care to regain motor skills and basic cognitive functions. By 2009, he had been admitted to Harvard University and began his fight for DCYF once the memories about his abuse resurfaced in 2010. The abuse was suppressed by the massive amounts of thorazine (chlorpromazine) that was injected into Alahverdian to sedate him and make him immobile. Thorazine has been proven in multiple scientific studies and medical journals to cause extreme memory loss and impaired neurological function resulting in an onslaught of memories returning to oneself once a breakthrough event is experienced.